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Spider Silk Cape Goes On Display
fangmcgee writes "Before anyone asks, no, it's not bulletproof. But that doesn't mean that the glistening yellow cape—the world's largest garment made entirely from spider silk—isn't a massive feat of engineering to be marveled. Now on public display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the textile gets its unearthly gleam from the undyed filaments of the golden orb spider, a species of arachnid commonly found in Madagascar."
http://theinfosphere.org/Spiderians
Sure, bulletproof would be nice, but what I really want to know is whether it'll let me block creatures with flying.
I'm sure it cost more than the whole shire to make. On the BBC, Horizon "Playing God". They show a lab that has altered the DNA of goats so they produce spider web protients in their milk which can be harvested.Makes production more feasible. [ As they have 8 legs you get more mutton too :)]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf
Aluminium was once phenomenally rare and expensive. Napoleon had a set of highly valued plates made of the stuff. Breakthroughs in manufacturing made it a cheap, common material. I suspect this will go the same way, with synthetic versions becoming a utilitarian material among others. The cape will become an amusing historical footnote.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Not many people know it, but the apex of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum. At the time, it was the largest piece ever crafted anywhere in the world and it was a precious metal. Only two years later, aluminum became completely worthless when the Hallâ"Héroult process for mass production of pure aluminum was discovered.
Many different kinds of spider silk. One spider will typically produce several kinds depending on need (tensile strength, stickyness, elasticity). But the strongest kinds will typically blow even carbon fiber out of the water when it comes to tensile strength. Lots of difficulties to overcome still, but it is a fascinating field of research
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Spider silk isn't sticky by itself. It's essentially some very long protein filaments, same as worm-butt silk.
What makes spider orbs sticky is that the spider then deposits small droplets of glue along the threads.
But even spiders produce non-glued silk all the time. E.g., when a spider lowers itself by dangling on a silk filament, it doesn't bother putting glue on it.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
No capes! -- Edna Mode